We asked Marvin Salcido about the number one mistake he made when he first started.

Here’s what he said:

“It is more important to get profitable work, rather than just ‘work.’

It took me many years to realize that not all work is good work. I used to take any job that would pay, whether or not I made money on it!

I used to think that as long as I had money in my bank account, that I was making money. It was quite the awakening when I realized that a lot of the jobs that I thought I was making money on, I was really losing money on.”

What’s the biggest mistake you made in your first year?

“I used to lower my prices, because I did not believe in myself or my abilities. Having low prices led to me to taking just any work, thus not being profitable in the work that I did do.”

The 3 Things You Need to Figure Out | Garrett Matthews from Matthews Landscape

Everything else has a way of taking care of itself. If you can figure out those 3 things you will win!

Be patient… everything takes longer than you think!”

What was your biggest mistake when you first started?

“Bought all the same equipment and tried to run my business like everyone else in town.”

How You Should Think About Your Business | Mike Callahan from Callahan’s Lawn Care

Here’s what Mike Callahan from Callahan’s Lawn Care figured out. Once he got this down, he took his lawn company from “just average” to one of the dominant players in all New York.

“I started out when I was 16 to pay for my car insurance. If someone back in the day had told me lawn care could be a real business… If someone had taught me basic accounting principles in high school, that would have been really helpful. Use QuickBooks and things like that.

Approach it and treat it as a business with actual overhead. Set it up as a business and run it as a business. It’s not side money to pay for your car insurance.

You want to create an executable business plan to follow and hold yourself accountable to, and hopefully get a few people – like a mastermind group – to help you.”

Are You Thinking too SMALL? | Jacob Godar from Scooter’s Lawn Care

“I wish someone would have told me I would always be thinking too small – even when I thought I was thinking “big.”

I constantly remind myself of this. It takes massive action and some risk from time to time to move the ball forward. It takes discomfort and healthy fear to push out of your comfort zone and really get the results you want.”

What’s the Worst Piece of Equipment You Ever Bought?

We asked the experts this last question. Here’s what they said:

Marvin: “More than once, I bought some used equipment (which in and of itself, is not bad), but I never used the equipment!

I went through all the effort to travel and buy it, only to have it sit around and collect dust. So it wasn’t bad equipment that was my worst piece of equipment, but wasted equipment that was my worst.

I would highly encourage new owners to purchase equipment as they need it, not because they want new and shiny equipment.”

Bryan Ring: “Worst piece of equipment? Walmart string trimmer.”

Garrett Matthews: “Perma Green Spreader/Sprayer.”

Mike Callahan: “I’m an early adopter of technology, so I bought a hydraulic weed whacker attachment that bolted on the side of the lawn mower. In theory it was amazing, but the thing fell apart in a few weeks.”

Jacob Godar: “The worst piece of equipment we ever bought was our used Exmark riding mower. Buying used equipment (trucks excluded) has been nothing but trouble for us. That may not be the case for everyone, but we stick to new equipment now.”

Speed Up Your Growth with This Advice

This advice will skip you ahead of your “small time” competitors, and get you into the big leagues faster.

You probably noticed a few common threads from these lawn care experts:

Know your numbers

Get the core pieces of your business into place

Start dreaming bigger now, so you aren’t trapped by “small thinking” later

Get these things down now, and you’ll have a much stronger year in lawn care. Happy growing.